DEBATEABLE LAND 89 



is no doubt an alternative, and that is about as much as need 

 be said about it. ]^ut this last petition — signed by the Arch- 

 bishop — takes up fresh ground. It pegs out, as it were, a new 

 claim in the cause of the humanities. The horses ridden 

 by the hunt-servants and others after the Queen's Hounds 

 are now to be included in the area of organised cruelty.' 

 It is not explained how the National Drag Hunt is to get on 

 without horses ; but we can hardly expect the Archbishop 

 to know all about drag-hunting as well as about stag-hunting. 

 When I took over the Queen's Hounds, the simpler form of 

 agitation was at its height. Under the leadership of Mr. 

 Stratton the horse argument had not been invented. 



I made up my mind to make the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Stratton as soon as possible. Somehow I felt persuaded of 

 his sincerity ; besides, the zeal and resolution of his attack 

 upon the scarlet and gold of our dynasty rather interested 

 me. I wished to hear for myself what he had to say 

 about it all. The opportunity soon came. Early in the 

 month of October we ran a hind out of the forest to 

 Wokingham. She ran into a little stream, and was safely 

 taken a few hundred yards from the many-gabled old red- 

 brick almshouse of which Mr. Stratton is the warden. He 

 takes admirable care of the old people, and is much esteemed 

 by them. ' There,' said Harvey, the Queen's huntsman, to 

 me in a stage whisper, ' is the Rev. Stratton ' ; and there 

 he was, w^atching our proceedings. I at once introduced 

 myself, and we had quite a nice talk. On that occasion Mr. 

 Stratton assured me that he was no enemy to fox-hunting. 

 Quite the contrary ; a Staffordshire man, he was brought up 

 to like it, one of his nearest and kindest relatives, as he told 

 me, being a great judge of a fighting cock or a foxhound. 

 After that we had some little correspondence of quite a 



' 'Merciless riding of horses in the effort to save the deer for another day,' 

 is the way it is put : see The Times, Nov. 23, 1896. 



